Bean sprout culture box with a sprinkling device

ABSTRACT

A bean sprout culture box with a sprinkling device has a water tray, at least one culture case, a sprinkling case, a hollow sprinkler pivotally mounted in the sprinkling case and an inlet valve. The sprinkling case has multiple drain holes defined in the bottom of the sprinkling case. The hollow sprinkler has a chamber defined in the bottom of the sprinkler and multiple posts extending down from the sprinkler at the end opposite from the chamber. With such a bean sprout culture box, the sprinkling device can automatically sprinkle by the effect of gravity on the water, and electricity is not needed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a bean sprout culture box, and moreparticularly to a bean sprout culture box with an automatic sprinklingdevice.

2. Description of Related Art

With reference to FIG. 6, a traditional bean sprout culture box inaccordance with the prior art comprises a culture case (80) and a nettray (82). The net tray (82) is mounted in the culture case (80) to holdthe beans. Several posts (not numbered) extend down from the bottom ofthe net tray (82), such that the net tray (82) is supported above thebottom of the culture case (80) and a water reservoir is defined betweenthe net tray (82) and the culture case (80). Because the conventionalculture case (80) cannot sprinkle automatically, a watering can (90) isused to sprinkle water on the bean sprouts.

However, manually sprinkling with the conventional watering can (90) isinconvenient. Water is not evenly sprinkled over the net tray (82). As aresult, a conventional culture box is provided with an electricalsprinkling device to solve the foregoing problems. However, theoperation of the conventional electrical sprinkling device requireselectricity. The conventional sprinkling device cannot operate whenelectricity cannot be supplied. Therefore, the use of the conventionalelectrical sprinkling device is also inconvenient. Furthermore, acontrol device to control the operation of the sprinkling device isneeded. This will increase the cost of procuring and using thesprinkling device.

To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide animproved bean sprout culture box with a sprinkling device to mitigate orobviate the aforementioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The main objective of the invention is to provide an improved beansprout culture box with a sprinkling device to automatically sprinklewith no electricity required. The bean sprout culture box has a watertray, at least one culture case, a sprinkling case, a hollow sprinklerpivotally mounted in the sprinkling case and an inlet valve. Thesprinkling case has multiple drain holes defined in the bottom of thesprinkling case. The hollow sprinkler has a chamber defined in thebottom of the sprinkler and multiple posts extending down from thesprinkler at the end away from the chamber. This can sprinkleautomatically, and electricity is not needed.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention willbecome more apparent from the following detailed description when takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bean sprout culture box in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the bean sprout culture box inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial side plan view in partial section of the bean sproutculture box in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side plan view in partial section of the bean sprout culturebox in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an operational side plan view in partial section of the beansprout culture box in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is an operational front plan view in partial section of a beansprout culture box in accordance with the prior art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a bean sprout culture box in accordancewith the present invention comprises a water tray (60), a culture case(40), a sprinkling case (10), a sprinkler (20) and an inlet valve (16).The water tray (60) has an overflow port (62) defined in one wall of thetray (60). With reference to FIG. 1 and 5, a hose is connected to theoverflow port (62) and discharges in separate a reservoir.

The culture case (40) is supported on the water tray (60). In practice,multiple stacked culture cases (40) are supported on a single tray (60).Each culture case (40) has multiple drain holes (46) defined in thebottom to communicate with the water tray (60). A net plate (50) ismounted in each culture case (40) to hold the beans. A skirt (44)extends down from the top outside edge of each culture case (40).Multiple vents (42) are defined in each culture case (40) and correspondto the skirt (44) for the air to pass through the vents (42).

The sprinkling case (10) is supported on the culture case (40). Whenthere are multiple culture cases (40) mounted on the water tray (60),the sprinkling case (10) is located on the topmost culture case (40).The sprinkling case (10) has multiple drain holes (12) defined in thebottom to communicate with the culture case (40) below. A hood (30) ismounted on and covers the sprinkling case (10).

The sprinkler (20) is a container with an open top. A chamber (22) isdefined in the bottom of the sprinkler (20) at one end of the sprinkler(20). Multiple posts (24) extend down from the sprinkler (20) at the endopposite from the chamber (22). A pivot pin (26) protrudes from theoutside of each side of the sprinkler (20). A bore (14) is defined ineach opposite side of the sprinkling case (10) to engage with thecorresponding pivot pin (26) ill the sprinkler (20). The sprinkler (20)is pivotally mounted in the sprinkling case (10) by means of theengagement between the pivot pins (26) and the corresponding bores (14).

With reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, the inlet valve (16) extends into thesprinkling case (10) above the sprinklet (20). The inlet valve (16) isconnected to a faucet (not numbered) with a hose (not numbered), suchthat the sprinkler (20) can be filled with water from the tap throughthe hose and the inlet valve (16).

In operation, with reference to FIGS. 1, 4 and 5, some water is receivedin the chamber (22) of the sprinkler (20) in advance. The end of thesprinkler (20) with the posts (24) will rotate up due to the weight ofthe water in the chamber (22). The water will not flow out of thesprinkler (20). When the user turns on the tap, the water will be sentinto the sprinkler (20) from the tap through the inlet valve (16). Aftera desired amount of the water is added to the sprinkler (20), the weightof the water in the chamber (22) will be overcome. The sprinkler (20)will rotate relative to the sprinkling case (10) due to the weight ofthe added water. The water will be sprinkled out from the sprinkler(20). When the water is poured out of the sprinkler (20) by means of therotation of the sprinkler (20), the water will strike the wall of thesprinkling case (10) and flow over the whole sprinkling case (10). Thewater will evenly pass through all of the drain holes (12) in thesprinkling case (10) and be sprinkled into the culture case (40) below.This can provide an even sprinkling effect to all of the beans held onthe net plate (50). The water tray (60) is used to hold the water thatflows through the culture case (40). The excess water in the water tray(60) will be automatically sent to a reservoir through a hose connectedto the overflow port (62).

When the water is sprinkled from the sprinkler (20), the posts (24) willabut the bottom of the sprinkling case (10). The rotating angle of thesprinkler (20) can be controlled, and the amount of water of eachsprinkling is controlled.

In addition, because the rotating angle is controlled by the abutmentbetween each post and the bottom of the sprinkling case (10), all thewater in the sprinkler (20) will not be poured out. The chamber (22)will still hold an amount of water in the chamber (22), so the sprinkler(20) will rotate backward due to the weight of the water in the chamber(22). Consequently, the sprinkler (20) will automatically sprinkle bythe effect of gravity on the water. No electric power is needed toactive the sprinkling device. The cost for using the bean sprout culturebox can be reduced. Furthermore, because the flow of the water can becontrolled at the tap, the time between two subsequent sprinklings isalso controlled.

Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the presentinvention have been set forth in the foregoing description, togetherwith details of the structure and function of the invention, thedisclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail,especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts withinthe principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by thebroad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims areexpressed.

What is claimed is:
 1. A bean sprout culture box comprising: a watertray with an overflow port; at least one culture case supported on thewater tray; a sprinkling case supported on a topmost culture case andhaving multiple drain holes defined in a bottom of the sprinkling case;a hollow sprinkler having opposing first and second ends being pivotallymounted in the sprinkling case for rotative displacement about a pivotalaxis and having an open cavity for receiving water therein, apredetermined volume of water received in the cavity causing therotative displacement of the sprinkler from a filling position to adispensing position wherein a portion of the received water is dispensedto the sprinkling case from the first end of the sprinkler, the cavityhaving an open chamber defined in a bottom thereof adjacent the secondend of the sprinkler and having a predetermined volume of watermaintained therein, the water maintained in the chamber acting as acounterweight to return the sprinkler to the filling position subsequentto a predetermined volume of water being dispensed from the sprinkler,the sprinkler having multiple posts extending down from the first end ofthe sprinkler for limiting the rotative displacement of the sprinkler tothe dispensing position; and an inlet valve extending into thesprinkling case above the sprinkler.
 2. The bean sprout culture box asclaimed in claim 1, wherein a skirt extends down from a top outside edgeof each of at least one culture case; and multiple vents are defined ineach at least one culture case and correspond to the skirt to provide aventilation effect to the culture case.
 3. The bean sprout culture boxas claimed in claim 1, wherein a pivot pin protrudes from each side ofthe sprinkler; and a bore is defined in each side of the sprinkling caseto engage with the corresponding pivot pin in the sprinkler.
 4. The beansprout culture box as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a net platemounted in each of the at least one culture case.
 5. The bean sproutculture box as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a hood mounted onthe sprinkling case to cover the sprinkling case.